Crime, nurse home visits, and wingnuttia

You might expect a program that strengthens families, saves money, and prevents crime to be pretty uncontroverial among conservatives, especially once the program has the support of Republican Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, Republican former Governor of Pennsylvania (and Bush Administration Secretary of HHS) Tom Ridge, and James Q. Wilson, author of Thinking About Crime and Ronald Reagan Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine.

But you’d be wrong.

In a piece just up on Newsweek site, I describe how the Heritage Foundation, Glenn Beck, Chuck Norris, and the House Republican Conference decided to oppose grants for nurse home visits because the propsal is included in the House version of health care reform.

Did you know that a public health nurse trained to coach young mothers is just a “babysitter” – or perhaps she’s carring a “stealth agenda” to “impose a federally directed, top-down approach to parenting” on behalf of the “fat police”? Neither did I.